Letter: Facts about milk and phthalates

Sir: Diane Coyle (27 May) denigrates breastfeeding as too inconvenient for the working mother. If mothers are to breastfeed, it is the responsibility of government and employers to support and facilitate this by providing adequate maternity leave and/or a combination of workplace creches and flexible breastfeeding breaks. Instead we are given the conflicting messages that although the Department of Health would like us to breastfeed for a year, the Department of Social Security is willing to allow us only 18 weeks statutory paid maternity leave, and we have no legal right to breastfeeding breaks during working hours. It is this ludicrous contradiction which forces mothers to make a difficult and unnecessary choice between career or breastfeeding.